If you’re in business, generally you sell a product or a service. That product or service, based on a multitude of factors, is received by consumers in some experiential way. On one end of the continuum, you have a “commodity.” You can get it at a number of places, it’s pretty much the same wherever you get it. “Goods and services" come next as you move up the curve. There’s a way to differentiate those goods and services from your competitors through content or through delivery. Finally comes an “Experience.” The Experience may involve a product and/or a service, but it goes beyond the traditional commerce of buy and sell. The consumer leaves that transaction with a memory, or an impression. The experience evokes an emotion. I bet most of you can distinctly remember your first visit to Disney World...the sights, sounds, smells, touch. Disney offers lots of goods and services; but they envelop them in an experience.

If you’re in charge of HR – or have some influence on how it provides goods and services to your employees – take a moment to assess whether your practice is closer to providing a commodity or an experience. Just to be clear: providing timely paychecks, keeping people benefited, creating a safe and fair workplace, managing annual evaluations, responding to employee questions are commodities. If you do those things extremely well, you’ll be lucky to get “duh” out of your employees.

When someone has a negative experience with HR, they’ll tell everyone. When someone has a neutral experience with HR, they’ll tell no one. When someone has a “difference making” experience, they’ll become your champion. Let the goods and services be your platform, but make the experience your niche.